Mission statement: On this blog we explore why homeschooling can be a better option for children and families than a traditional classroom setting. We'll also explore homeschooling issues in general, educational thoughts, family issues, and some other random stuff.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Business Week Online Article about homeschooling

A growing number of affluent parents think they can do better than any school Slater Aldrich doesn't attend any of the top-shelf public or private schools near his family's Madison (Conn.) home, not even his mother's alma mater, the $18,000-a-year Country School. Instead, the 11-year-old spends his days playing the role of town zoning officer, researching the pros and cons of granting approval to a new Wal-Mart (WMT ). Other endeavors include pretending he's a Sand Hill Road venture capitalist, creating Excel-studded business plans for a backyard sheep company, and growing his own organic food.

"It's kind of like living on a white-collar farm," says his dad, Clark Aldrich. Aldrich vowed he'd never put his kid through the eye-glazing lectures he endured in school, even at prestigious institutions like Lawrence Academy and Brown University.

Over all it's a pretty good article. Now that rich yuppies are doing it, homeschooling can't be all bad. Here's the funny part:

PATCHWORK OF LAWS

Homeschooling isn't universally applauded as a solution, however. Some parents and educators worry that it retards children's socialization. Others say it siphons much-needed resources like per-pupil funding and the activism of the most savvy parents. Schooling in isolation could threaten civic cohesion and diversity of thought, says Stanford University education professor Rob Reich. Reich favors stricter homeschooling regulations to supplant the current patchwork of state laws so that children can be assured of exposure to more than just what their parents sanction. He also worries about parents pushing homeschooling on their kids.

Judy I've been thinking about Reich coming back in his next life. To be homeschooled really is more of a reward, not a punishment. My suggestion is that he is the last kid in America to be homeschooled. After him public schools would be all gone.

I am a community minded person but don't you love that us homeschooling denies the schools of using us as parents for the schools? We shouldn't send our kids for their own benifit but so we can benifit everyone else's kids.